Tasmania

19/09/2005
After a calm trip over the Bass Strait we arrive in rainy Devonport at 7am. Instead of first going towards Cradle Mountain as originally planned (since the weather is so bad) we decide to head towards Launceston instead. We start the morning with chocolate at the Anvers House of Belgian Chocolate and continue with cheese further along the road at the Ashmore Chesse Factory. In Launceston we try to find a motel or backpackers that is reasonable clean and cheap but that seems to be impossible so we go for the safe option - the caravan park. After exhaustingly (tired as we didn't sleep much on the ferry) strolling around the streets of Launceston and checking out Cataract Gorge we go to the caravan park to have a nap - when we wake up it's dark - we get up and brush our teeth and go back to sleep.

20/09/2005
Waking up to a better looking day - no rain. We decide to be a bit luxurious and go and visit the Aquarius Roman Baths - a modern version of a traditional Roman-looking bath with white pillars and Greek statues etc. The bath house has all kind of different warm and hot rooms - steaming rooms and saunas - and all different kinds of baths - warm and hot and jet steams etc. It's wonderful relaxing in the luxury for a while and it's wonderful feeling really clean...but after a few hours of steaming air and hot baths we feel a bit dizzy and have to get out into the fresh air.

After lunch we start travelling towards the east coast. Plenty of winding road and sharp bends. Beautiful scenery and plenty of forest. We find a great camp spot north of St Helens at Binalong Bay and spend the night by the fire sipping wine. We are really happy that we can camp - we didn't really expect it as everyone warned us that Tasmania would be so cold. We must be lucky because the weather is great!

21/09/2005
Waking up to another nice day. We have a look at the southern beaches of the Bay of Fires. Amazing white beaches and turqoise water. On our southbound drive we go on some more winding roads (there doesn't seem to be any straight stretches of roads in Tasmania by the way). Green rolling hills. Forests. Sheep. Sea. Beaches. In Bicheno we stop at a small aquarium (recommended by friends Matt and Cheryl) and get to see some amazing creatures - big crabs, sea horses, sharks etc.

We then go into the famous Freycinet National Park and go for a walk to have a look at Wineglass Bay. Amazing views. Beautiful coastline. Different-looking mountains. It feels like we are running out of adjectives here - and that we are getting a bit repetitive. Everything is beautiful and amazing and magnificent and gorgeous...if you come up with any new or different words please let us know.

We spend the night at a roadside rest area and get ready for tomorrow's tours.

22/09/2005
Up with the birds and towards Hobart. We have booked in for a tour at the Cascade Brewery at 9.30am. The old brewery is beautifully situated just beneath Mount Wellington. We get to know everything about beer-making and get to taste a few samples of beers and ciders. Nice! After the beer it's time for some chocolate - we have booked in for a tour at the Cadbury Chocolate Factory at 12.30. Yum! The tour is great and the whole factory smells of chocolate. We get to see how they make cherry ripe, frogs, turkish delight, the rose chocolates and we get to taste it. Can't get any better than that. After the tour we stock up on plenty of goodies from the factory store. A new favourite is the triple decker mint chocolate. Look out for that!

After all that drinking and eating we go into the city to have a look around. Hobart is a beautiful city with great, old stone buildings. After a short stroll we see the Larks Distillery by the wharf and we just have to go in and taste some of the local whiskeys and spirits...then we stroll along the wharf and Salamanca.

We then check into a caravan park and cook and eat and do the laundry etc...
23/09/2005
Port Arthur, the old convict site, is apparently a must on all tourists' lists so we decide to go there and have a look. The 90 km drive from Hobart is winding and bending up and down. We are pleasantly suprised how much there is to see at Port Arthur. You really get value for your money ($24 entry fee per person) - you get to go on a harbour cruise and see the Dead Man Island (the cemetery) and the Point Puer Island where boy prisoners were kept (some of them only nine years old!) and we get an introductory tour to all the sites and buildings on the mainland. The old stone buildings are well-kept and the architecture is very impressive and the stories about the past are really interesting. Port Arthus is a really beautiful place - green and lush - and it looks idyllic but the place still has a bit of an eerie feeling - both because of its old convict history but also beacuse of the horrible massacre that took place here in 1996.

After about four hours at Port Arthur we drive back to Hobart. We find a prefect street on a hill just above Salamanca where we decide to stay for the night. We go and have a few beers in Salamanca, in a traditional stone building of a pub. We then go for dinner at Fish Frenzy on the Wharf - we have been told that the seafood in Tasmania is "the best" so we have to try it. We order a seafood platter for two and get everything from mussels, oysters and salmon to calamari, octopus and normal fish. It's beautiful and so fresh. Even D, who usually doesn't like seafood, likes the mussles and the octopus. The wine is nice too. After a filling night we stagger back to our car.

24/09/2005
D wakes up early busting to go to the loo and he doesn't feel like watering the gardens of the residents on the hill so he wakes H up and fools her that it's past 8 - but it's only 6.30 - so she gets up and off they go to find a toilet. After a bit of searching and a great relief for D it's time for brekkie. We have brekkie at Salamanca Square. People have started to put up market stalls in Salamanca as the Saturday markets are soon to open. After trying to cure the hangover (that is H) with breakfast we walk the markets and when it starts to rain we decide to get out of Hobart and drive towards the westcoast. The weather is not so great and we are a bit tired so after a few hours of driving we stop and have a nap by the roadside and then hit the road again. We drive through the old mining town Queenstown and some really, really steep and winding roads and we drive through picturesque Strahan and then towards Ocean Beach where we set up camp for the night. It's windy and chilly by the beach so we climb into the car early.

25/09/2005
Breakfast on the beach. Then we steer towards Cradle Mountain where we are planning to go for a walk around Dove Lake. It's pretty cold at Cradle Mountain, around 10 degrees. The walk is refreshing and we really need it - after all that chocolate and drinking and eating. Cradle Mountain, Dove Lake and its surroundings are beautiful. So different from anything else that we have seen on the trip. There's still a little bit of snow on some of the peaks. I guess we have to get ready for this cooler kind of climate since we are going back to Sweden soon. After the two-hour walk we drive towards Devonport where we are catching the ferry back to Melbourne. Bye Bye Tasmania.

26/09/2005
Arrive safely in Melbourne at 7am, after another calm trip across the Bass Strait. We are not really ready to make our way to Sydney yet so we decide to stay around Melbourne for a day or two and we had such a great time with the crazy bunch from our Cape York trip so we decide to go and see them again.